Sunday, June 18, 2017

Mosul Campaign Day 244 Jun 17 2017

Father and his
brother search dead bodies in west Mosul looking for his son (Voice of America)

There was fighting
across the two remaining areas in west Mosul under Islamic State control. First,
the Golden Division had to call off an attack upon Shifa due to heavy fire from IS, especially snipers in
hospital buildings and the use of human shields. The Federal Police claimed to have taken Hospital Street in the
neighborhood. Unofficially, a Federal Police Captain told Bas News they were in
control of 70% of the neighborhood, while another police officer went further saying all of Shifa was freed. June 16, the police were only supposed to have
30-35% of the area, which was below the 60% mentioned on June 11. The Rapid
Reaction Division assaulted Tal Zalat, which is one of the entrances to the Old City. Police
reinforcements also arrived outside Bab al-Jadid and in Bab al-Sinjar two other
ways into the Old City. When the new offensive started at the end of May the
Iraqi forces (ISF) moved into the Shifa medical complex and immediately got
ambushed by the insurgents and had to retreat. They have been struggling over
the area ever since. That hasn’t stopped the Iraqis from claiming they
controlled a varying amount of the neighborhood. The actual figure is
impossible to say since it keeps going up and down. The Old City on the other
hand, will be the last neighborhood taken on by the ISF. It has held up the
police for four months or more now. It has a large civilian population, and the
IS fighters have been able to successfully exploit the dense layout where
armored vehicles are too large to traverse the streets to build formidable
defense. The district will eventually fall, but it will be a bloody battle.

The National wrote about how the attrition of the
insurgents’ fighting force is leading them to use women in increasing numbers.
In the battle for the Zinjali neighborhood, which was the last area freed,
female suicide bombers and snipers were deployed. Lady bombers have also
infiltrated into the displaced to carry out attacks behind the front lines.
Females have also been seen in some of IS’ latest online releases. With the
Islamic State’s man power so depleted it has turned to one of its last
resources to carry on with the fight. It has proven an effective tactical move
as the ISF don’t search displaced women and are reluctant to fire on them when they
appear on the battlefield as bombers. This is not the first time IS has
deployed women. In 2008 for instance, there was almost a year-long wave of women suicide bombers.

Voice of America had a heartbreaking story on the civilian
casualties in the Mosul battle. First, 17 year old Dhiab Idris Abdul Ghani had
lived under the Islamic State for three years when he finally found the
opportunity to get away. When the ISF reached his neighborhood he and his
younger cousin tried to make a break for it. Dhiab was shot. His father Hazzam
and his uncle went looking for him amongst the rubble and found him 13-14 days
after he was killed. Second, VOA also talked with a man whose cousin’s house
was hit by an airstrike. He said 23 people were trapped in the rubble. He made
it to ISF lines and was told to register and get a number to have them dug out.
By then he thought everyone was dead, but he still wanted the bodies for a
proper burial probably. Civilians have suffered by far the largest casualties
in the fighting. In west Mosul especially, there has been a greater use of air
strikes, mortars, and artillery, and more executions by the Islamic State, and
killing of civilians attempting to flee. The true figures will likely never be
revealed but they have to be staggering.

After an
investigation and official denial by the Iraqi forces it turns out the U.S. led
Coalition has used white phosphorus in west Mosul (Daily Mail)

It turns out the
U.S. led Coalition did use white phosphorus in Mosul. At the start of June, a
Kurdish television station filmed what looked like phosphorus shells exploding over a west Mosul
neighborhood. The ISF claimed they investigated the matter, and found it was not phosphorus
but smoke shells. The fact that phosphorus is supposed to be used for smoke was
a loophole in their story. Later a New Zealand General Hugh McAslan admitted to National Public Radio that phosphorus had been fired in Mosul to
cover civilians trying to flee IS. The problem with phosphorus is that if it
hits the ground it works as an incendiary burning both materials and flesh at
extreme temperatures. The Iraqis are completely averse to any bad news emerging
from the battlefield. This is one of many times they have denied and obfuscated
what happened in the Mosul campaign. Simply put, when it comes to these types
of situations the Iraqis are a completely unreliable source.

IRAQ HISTORY TIMELINE

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About Me

Musings On Iraq was started in 2008 to explain the political, economic, security and cultural situation in Iraq via original articles and interviews. I have written for the Jamestown Foundation, Tom Ricks’ Best Defense at Foreign Policy and the Daily Beast, and was responsible for a chapter in the book Volatile Landscape: Iraq And Its Insurgent Movements. My work has been published in Iraq via NRT, AK News, Al-Mada, Sotaliraq, All Iraq News, and Ur News all in Iraq. I was interviewed on BBC Radio 5, Radio Sputnik, CCTV and TRT World News TV, and have appeared in CNN, the Christian Science Monitor, The National, Columbia Journalism Review, Mother Jones, PBS’ Frontline, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Institute for the Study of War, Radio Free Iraq, Rudaw, and others. I have also been cited in Iraq From war To A New Authoritarianism by Toby Dodge, Imagining the Nation Nationalism, Sectarianism and Socio-Political Conflict in Iraq by Harith al-Qarawee, ISIS Inside the Army of Terror by Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassahn, The Rise of the Islamic State by Patrick Cocburn, and others. If you wish to contact me personally my email is: motown67@aol.com